You do not need to be familiar with the settings of the Magic: The Gathering game to enjoy this book. Agents of Artifice was deliberately written to be accessible and to appeal to newcomers and Magic fans alike.

It is the dawn of a new age in the Multiverse. The balance of power is shifting and Agents of Artifice brings readers to the heart of a planeswalker struggle…

In Agents of Artifice, Ari Marmell reimagines planeswalkers, taking fans deeper than ever into the lives of the Multiverse’s most powerful beings: Jace Beleren(TM), the prodigal son, a powerful telepath whose choices now will forever determine his path as a mage; Liliana Vess(TM), a temptress whose beauty belies a dark secret and even darker associations; and Tezzeret(TM), leader of an interplanar consortium whose quest for knowledge may be undone by his lust for power.

Follow these characters in their quests for knowledge and power. Will Jace’s choices lead him astray of the right path? Will Liliana’s past finally catch up with her? Will Tezzeret allow hubris to obscure his vision?

Notes:Black Crusade was originally written to be one of the first of the Ravenloft: Dominion line of novels from Wizards of the Coast. “Ravenloft” is the name of a gothic horror/fantasy setting. Although Ravenloft was created for the Dungeons and Dragons game, the Dominion line was meant to give it a new flavor–specifically, rather than drawing characters and domains from various D&D worlds, it would draw them from various periods of real-world history. In the case of Black Crusade, that period was the First Crusade.

Alas, Black Crusade was pushed back on the schedule for marketing reasons, and thus became a victim when the line was canceled. The novel was done, however, and Wizards decided to make it available in electronic format. It was initially released chapter-by-chapter as a weekly serial, but it’s now available in completed form. While I’m disappointed that it won’t see print, I’m delighted that you folks are able to see it in some form.

The book is, perhaps, a tad more raw than I’d like–I’ve learned a lot in writing my subsequent novels, such as The Conqueror’s Shadow and Agents of Artifice, and I’d probably do things a little differently on Black Crusade if I had to go back and do it again. But I’m still quite proud of it, overall, and I hope you all enjoy reading it.

“Before I Wake” was published online as part of WotC’s Digital Initiatve.

Credits: Sole author

Notes: This a Ravenloft tale, but only marginally; if you know nothing of the setting, it won’t hurt your appreciation, and in fact you almost certainly wouldn’t even know there was anything that you didn’t know. (Um, so to speak.) It’s also my attempt at the pastiche of H.P. Lovecraft. (Not that I tried to imitate his writing completely; I don’t think I could. But the writing and, in particular, the dialog is more like his than anything else I’ve written.)